And now a few words from the President of the United States:

Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!

9:43 AM – 31 Oct 2018

Astounding! How many other ways are there to spell “breathtaking inanity?” With this president we have no need for late-night television.

There are times I just look, and I say to myself, “What were they thinking?’ Let’s start with the scene below, a screen shot taken from ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, streaming on Hulu this morning.

It’s a picture of people of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh burying their dead. This after a presidentially-inspired gunman arrived there on Saturday, shouting anti-Jewish rhetoric, and murdering 11 members of the congregation. That given, let’s take it back a few months:

US President-elect Donald Trump told the Israel Hayom Hebrew-language daily that he intends to go through with his pledge to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, saying that “clearly I did not forget” the promise made on the campaign trail.

American commitment to Israel has at times been a contentious issue. The United States was the first country to extend recognition of Israel on its formation in 1948. This support has been with reservations. The United States has, throughout the years, insisted on fair treatment for Arabs in the region, especially since Arabs now mostly occupy portions of the former Palestine not now incorporated into Israel. This balanced stance has been a point of contention with hard-line Israelis, many of which would opt for complete expulsion of the Palestinians.

Israelis and American Jews have not been the only ones favoring support for the hard-liners. (Fact is, a bulk of American Jews do not side with the hardliners on this matter.) American evangelical Christians support the hard-liners from a quaint, religious motivation. These are people who buy into the prophecy of the Apocalypse, the second coming of Christ, when all true Christians will vanish from the physical world and be transported to Heaven. According to the prophecy, the Jews have to be in power in the Holy Land for this to happen. Jews out, Arabs (Muslims) in, then it’s not going to happen. My view: there appear to be some Christians who spew anti-Jewish rhetoric while supporting Jewish domination of the Holy Land.

Two years ago candidate Trump was playing this card to garner the support of evangelical Christians. See the above.

So now I have to wonder how many American Jews also bought into Trump’s support for Israel and voted for him over Hillary Clinton, who made no such promises and lost the election. In particular, did any members of the Tree of Life congregation vote for the man who also informed us that American Jews instigated attacks as a means of undermining his agenda:

After days in which he refused to comment on a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, Mr Trump broke his silence to repeat an neo-Nazi conspiracy theory that has claimed that the attacks are “false flags”. Supporters of that belief – who include leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke – believe that such attacks are being perpetrated by Jewish people in order to undermine the White House.

Squirrel Hill is a pleasant neighborhood in Pittsburgh, home of a significant Jewish population. Whether any in Squirrel Hill residents ever voted for candidate Trump, the climate is much changed since Saturday:

Whoops! I don’t get this kind of reception when I show up for a creationist meeting. If not before, definitely now a hostile environment for President Trumps right-wing verbiage.

Jesus! If the midterm elections could be held this day in this neighborhood, then Republican candidates would be shopping for assisted living facilities tomorrow. What were they thinking?

I watched this months ago, but couldn’t bring myself to review it until now. I had a hard time following the plot. It came out two years ago and is streaming on Hulu, where I obtained these screen shots. It features Amy Adams as Olympic-class linguist Louise Banks and Jeremy Renner as physicist Ian Donnelly. Details are from Wikipedia.

The film is Arrival, and it opens with Banks, a mother raising her daughter alone. The child dies of an incurable illness.

Banks moves through life, committed to her work. One day she arrives at her class to teach about Portuguese, but the auditorium is nearly empty. A student requests she switch the TV monitor to a news channel. There she learns that minutes previously twelve alien spacecraft landed at disparate points on Earth.

She is recruited to work with the military to aid in communicating with the alien creatures. Each spacecraft is huge dish with a lune cross-section and standing on edge a few feet above the local surface of the planet. Entry is by means of a rectangular opening that appears periodically on the bottom for a short interval. Banks and Donnelly enter on several occasions over a period of days and meet two of the creatures, who they name Abbott and Costello.

The creatures remain inside a sealed compartment that has a transparent window which allows communication with outsiders. At first the communication is audio, which sounds like prolonged grunts and is unintelligible. Banks determines that visual communication is needed, and she brings along a white board and pen to get the dialog going. The creatures respond by generating geometric shapes in the fluid that surrounds them.

Banks decodes the symbols, and confusion develops, as some symbols are interpreted as relating to weapons.

The plot incorporates multiple flashbacks to Banks’ previous life, centering around her conversations with her daughter. At one point her daughter asks her for a word that describes a hostile conflict that is resolved with both sides obtaining satisfaction. Her daughter reports back that her father, a scientist, says such a situation is called a non-zero sum game.

The situation escalates at sites in China and Russia. These countries prepare for armed conflict.

There is a principle in linguistics that language impresses a world view. She observes that the aliens’ language has no direction in time. They live in a world where the future is as well-known as the past. She sees herself having a conversation with the Chinese military commander at a United Nations conference in the future. He explains the reason he ordered his troops to stand down is because he received a phone call from her on his private line. In the call she told the general his wife’s dying words.

Banks seizes a phone and makes the call, saving the world from destructive conflict with the Aliens. She and scientist Donnelly get together and decide to have a baby, completing the prophecy of the film’s opening scenes.

This is a bit difficult to follow, what with time shifting back and forth. Unless you maybe have read the original story by Ted Chiang you might find the plot confusing. Possibly for artistic reasons director Denis Villeneuve saw the persistent dark illumination as critical to setting the mood, but the effect on me was to make it hard to see what was going on. Watching on a large flat-screen TV in a darkened room, sometimes all I could see were a few patches of light, forcing me to rely on the audio to follow the action.

The film got good reviews, grabbing an Oscar for best sound editing and a nomination for best picture. With a budget of about $47 million it grossed $200 million in the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world. Adams has won critical acclaim the past few years, with four Oscar nominations for best supporting actress, and one for best actress. I have seen none of those films.

And now a few words from the President of the United States:

CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the “Media is the Enemy of the People.” Wrong! I said that the “Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,” a very big difference. When you give out false information – not good!

Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People – but dishonest reporters use only the word “Media.” The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!

5:14 PM – 29 Oct 2018

Yeah, fake news has started to become an urgent problem. Examples abound.

This series calls to attention ways by which people die from false belief. There are many tributaries to this theme, but religion is a principal one. For the time being I am drawing on individual experiences with Christian Science, a religious sect that eschews medical intervention of many forms. Here is one more:

Natalie Middleton-Rippberger of Santa Rosa, Calif., 8 months old, exhibited influenza-like symptoms on Nov. 25, 1984. By Dec. 2, she was warm to the touch and her eyes were constantly crossed. By Dec. 6, she had continuous convulsions. On Dec. 9, she died of meningitis. Her parents, Susan and Mark Rippberger, were convicted of felony child endangerment; the case is on appeal.

Shortly I will revert to a non-periodic reporting of these cases, but before I do I will address the notorious Branch Davidian and People’s Temple tragedies. Keep reading.

And now a few words from the President of the United States:

There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame…

After days in which he refused to comment on a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, Mr Trump broke his silence to repeat an neo-Nazi conspiracy theory that has claimed that the attacks are “false flags”. Supporters of that belief – who include leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke – believe that such attacks are being perpetrated by Jewish people in order to undermine the White House.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, said that he had spoken to the President about a wave of threats to Jewish community centres. And Mr Trump said that they had been designed to make “others look bad”

That will about do it with the fake news for today. There will be more in the days and weeks to come. We have his word on it.

I have attempted to draw three cylinders intersecting at right angles. Each cylinder is 3 inches in diameter. What is the volume common to all three cylinders? Post your answer in the comments section below.

As I previously mentioned, our nation is divided, and, furthermore, I am comfortable with that. There is a segment of this country, and there is a class of thought and activity, that I want to keep compartmentalized. Let’s start with this:

PITTSBURGH — Armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and at least three handguns, a man shouting anti-Semitic slurs opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday morning, killing at least 11 congregants and wounding four police officers and two others, the authorities said.

Fortunately we have a president who abhors this kind of activity and who works tirelessly to unite the country. But, I jest.

President Trump defended the white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville on Tuesday, saying they included “some very fine people.”

They immediately went after the Jews. At their Friday night rally at the University of Virginia, the white nationalists brandished torches and chanted anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans, including “blood and soil” (an English rendering of the Nazi “blut und boden”) and “Jews will not replace us” — all crafted to cast Jews as foreign interlopers who need to be expunged.

President Trump, whose daughter married a Jew and has converted to Judaism, does not embrace this kind of rhetoric and never has:

After days in which he refused to comment on a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, Mr Trump broke his silence to repeat an neo-Nazi conspiracy theory that has claimed that the attacks are “false flags”. Supporters of that belief – who include leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke – believe that such attacks are being perpetrated by Jewish people in order to undermine the White House.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, said that he had spoken to the President about a wave of threats to Jewish community centres. And Mr Trump said that they had been designed to make “others look bad”

A uniter, not a divider.

But not always.

It really is best that our nation is divided and that we know where the line is.

Yes, this is about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but the gunfight is only the beginning. Here we see the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday walking out to meet some of the Clanton gang in the streets of Tumbstone, 26 October 1881. There are five of the Clantons, including Billy Clanton, son of leader Ike Clanton. The four lawmen demand the Clanton people give up their weapons. The Clantons had a recent history of death threats toward the Earps.

The Clantons refuse to disarm, and they open fire. Holliday plus Virgil and Morgan Earp take hits, but after 30 seconds of firing three of the Clantons, including Billy Clanton, lie in the dust and never get up.

There is a power struggle in the town, that region of the country for that matter, with Ike Clanton hosting a collection of gunslingers to assist in opposing the onslaught of civilization. The four lawmen face trail for murder, but the judge decides they were acting within their duties as law officers, and therefore there was not crime.

Ike Clanton is not satisfied, and he launches a campaign of vengeance. First Virgil Earp is shot from ambush in the streets of the town. He survives as a cripple.

There is an election for a new city sheriff, and Morgan Earp is winning it, but a shotgun blast through the pool hall door kills him. His opposition in the election, Pete Spence (Michael Tolan) is given the job. Now it’s Wyatt who’s on a mission for revenge.

Wyatt takes his brother’s body to Tucson by train, and Clanton’s men follow. A planned ambush at the train station goes badly, and two of the Clanton assassins are killed by Wyatt and Doc.

Clanton’s gang begins to disintegrate. Clanton dismisses Spence and orders him to leave the area. Spence and others rob a stage coach for the mine payroll and kill three. Wyatt tracks Spence down and catches him with some of the loot. He notices Spence’s shotgun is nearby, and he turns his back for a moment. Spence seizes the opportunity and blazes away. But Wyatt has set him up, and he ducks behind a doorway, emerging to waste him with a volley from his pistol.

A similar fate awaits another ex-Clanton gangster. Wyatt elicits his confession to complicity in the shootings of his brothers and allows the man to go for his pistol before shooting him multiple times.

Meanwhile, Doc, suffering from tuberculosis, goes to Colorado for convalescence. He and Wyatt make the trip twice, and on the second trip Doc remains there to die.

Wyatt traces Ike to Mexico, where his gang is caught stealing cattle. The Mexican Federales are unable to prosecute Ike after their two witnesses, Clanton gang members, are murdered in their jail cells. Wyatt finally confronts Ike in a church courtyard and waits for him to go for his gun before killing him.

Wyatt leaves Arizona and never returns.

So, that was all about 137 years ago this month, plus some. Obviously the story begins on 26 October 1881 and goes forward from there. Despite the promise of the opening credits, little of the movie matches written records. In fact, few of the written records match anything. For example, I can find no record that Wyatt Earp killed Ike Clanton:

Clanton and his brother Phineas were charged with cattle-rustling and pursued by detective Jonas V. Brighton. On June 1, 1887, at Jim Wilson’s Ranch on Eagle Creek, south of Springerville, Arizona, Phin Clanton surrendered, but Ike resisted and was shot dead.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the most notorious of the Old West shootouts, but it was hardly known until 1931, two years after Wyatt died. Wyatt Earp retired with his family to Los Angeles, where he cavorted with western movie actors.

This came out the year after Garner made a big splash as a race car driver in Grand Prix.

And now a few words from the President of the United States:

Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this “Bomb” stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows – news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!

7:19 AM – 26 Oct 2018

It is so depressing how the mainstream media like to treat President Trump unfairly. Some egregious examples:

My, how times have changed. That was candidate Cruz two years ago. Now he is up for re-election to the United States Senate, representing the state of Texas. And guess what has happened since Senator Cruz last intoned those immortal words.

Ouch! Who could have imagined such popularity for a government mandate that insurance companies write blanket policies for all citizens, policies that would cover pre-existing conditions at no extra cost? Apparently not candidate Cruz model 2016.

Does Senator Cruz now see the writing on the wall? Does the bear…? Well, you know what the bear does.

Of course Senate candidate Cruz is saying that he still wants to repeal Obamacare, but he wants to retain the feature that guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Hello! Dude, that is Obamacare. Without mandated coverage for all you are not going to get insurance companies to write policies at an affordable price to cover pre-existing conditions. You are not going to get this kind of coverage without Obamacare.

And you want to continue to represent my state in the United States Senate? How about starting to get your head straight first.

There are those who tell me our nation is divided. I am not one to disagree, nor do I object. We have been divided for a long time, and that’s a good thing. There are those things, and there are those with which I would not like to be associated. There is a sharp line of division that separates me from the following:

Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, “it’s just not Presidential!”

12:14 AM – 26 Oct 2018

That will about do it for the fake civility and the phony grasping at reconciliation. Stay on your own side of the line.

And now a few words from the President of the United States:

The New York Times has a new Fake Story that now the Russians and Chinese (glad they finally added China) are listening to all of my calls on cellphones. Except that I rarely use a cellphone, & when I do it’s government authorized. I like Hard Lines. Just more made up Fake News!

6:57 AM – 25 Oct 2018

Absolutely! This business with fake news has got to stop. But where to begin?

And now a few words from the President of the United States:

A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!

4:18 AM – 25 Oct 2018

I am glad that somebody in our government is finally stepping up to address this problem.

Screen shoot from CNN on YouTube

Enough of the visuals. Let’s see what else is going on.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

I feel sorry for Rosie ‘s new partner in love whose parents are devastated at the thought of their daughter being with @Rosie–a true loser.

Big story out that the FBI ignored tens of thousands of Crooked Hillary Emails, many of which are REALLY BAD. Also gave false election info. I feel sure that we will soon be getting to the bottom of all of this corruption. At some point I may have to get involved!

Big story out that the FBI ignored tens of thousands of Crooked Hillary Emails, many of which are REALLY BAD. Also gave false election info. I feel sure that we will soon be getting to the bottom of all of this corruption. At some point I may have to get involved!

Despite so many positive events and victories, Media Reseach Center reports that 92% of stories on Donald Trump are negative on ABC, CBS and ABC. It is FAKE NEWS! Don’t worry, the Failing New York Times didn’t even put the Brett Kavanaugh victory on the Front Page yesterday-A17!

Trump on Gianforte: ‘Any guy who can do a body slam is my kind of guy’

If you beat up a protester at Trump’s rally, he’ll cover your legal fees.

After receiving a notice from his security that someone might be planning to throw tomatoes at him (again), Trump told his supporters to “knock the crap out of them … I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.” The crowd vociferously cheered him on.

One of the most chilling aspects of the Trump presidency for anyone with a baseline familiarity with history is the way his rhetoric has whipped up crowds at his rallies. The “lock her up” chants against Hillary Clinton, the time a protester was beaten at a campaign event and Trump offered to pay the attacker’s medical bills, the president threatening to “gently” DNA-test Sen. Elizabeth Warren — all of it is cheered by his audience.

No matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what you might be doing at this moment, you may come to realize that your handgun is not the problem. It is the solution. When in doubt, whip it out.

Two people were killed and 11 others injured when a gunman opened fire Sunday at a popular waterfront mall in Jacksonville, Florida, where a video game tournament was being held. Graphic recordings from the scene captured gunshots ringing out and the screams of terrified patrons taking cover.

David Katz, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland, is believed to be the gunman, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said. Katz used a single handgun to carry out the shooting and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said. Williams described Katz as a white male who was attending the gaming event. He did not know if Katz knew the victims.

It’s one of the few movies I have seen in a theater in the past 40 years, and I saw this one because my daughter wanted me to take her. It’s Pet Sematary from 1989, and I will get to the spelling of that last word in the title shortly. This is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. I don’t have a copy of the book, not even the Kindle edition, so I have no way of comparing this movie with the book. In fact, I didn’t watch the movie through again. I pulled the video up on Amazon Prime Video and grabbed these screen shots. Details are from Wikipedia.

The setting is in Maine, Stephen King’s home ground and where the location scenes were shot. The opening sequence sets the ominous mood. A massive tanker truck comes barreling down a country road, past a neat home that has just sold.

Right behind comes the Creed family, moving in, not realizing the nightmare that is to unfold here.

They meet their curmudgeonly neighbor Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne). He needs to be in this plot for the city slicker Creeds to play off against. He also needs to be the voice of a dark and foreboding wisdom.

Jud takes the Creed family to a place in the woods where apparently children have brought defunct pets and named it Pet Sematary, using second-grader spelling.

Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) is a doctor, and one of his patients is a jogger who has been struck and killed. Before he dies the patient warns Louis about the Pet Sematary, calling him by name, although the two had never met before.

When the family cat comes a cropper to traffic in front of their home, Louis takes the animal to the Pet Sematary. The cat comes back as a demon possessed.

Repeat that opening sequence, if you please. The truck driver picks up his load of fuel at the depot and sets off along the highway of death, not a care in the world. His music is playing, it’s a bright and sunny day, the truck is humming along without missing a beat. He adds weight to the pedal.

Meanwhile the Creeds are enjoying an outing on the front lawn. The truck is coming nearer. Little Gage (Miko Hughes) is doing what doomed toddlers are always doing. he is seeking death in his merry way. Too late, the family notices Gage is headed toward the highway.

You knew all along what was going to happen. The truck ends up on its side, and little Gage has proved to be no match. To shorten my recap, Louis takes Gage’s body to the Pet Sematary. Horror of horrors! He comes back as evil personified.

Jud seeks the demon Gage, searching into his own home. A small hand wielding a surgeon’s scalpel strikes like a snake from under the bed, expertly severing Jud’s Achilles tendon. Jud goes down, and Gage is on top of him to finish him off with the scalpel.

Next to go is Gage’s mother Rachel (Denise Crosby). Louis goes looking, and her body, hung by the neck, drops from above.

Louis cannot escape his fate. He takes Rachel’s body to the Pet Sematary, and later she returns for him to love into eternity.

Yes, this is a very scary film. King, if this is his plot, has put together all the standard components for classic horror. And that’s what is much about the plot. It’s formula without an underlying story of great interest.

None of the other players tug at my memory, but Fred Gwynne does stand out. He kept us entertained as Officer Francis Muldoon in the TV series Car 54, Where Are You and also as Herman Munster in The Munsters. I most recently saw him as the curmudgeonly Judge Chamberlain Haller in My Cousin Vinny. I’m keeping an eye open for that one to come to Prime Video. A review will be forthwith.

And now a few words from the President of the United States:

Billions of dollars are, and will be, coming into United States coffers because of Tariffs. Great also for negotiations – if a country won’t give us a fair Trade Deal, we will institute Tariffs on them. Used or not, jobs and businesses will be created. U.S. respected again!

9:43 AM – 23 Oct 2018

Amazing! It’s almost as though somebody else is going to pay those taxes. What a deal! Congress cuts income taxes, the president signs off on the legislation, income taxes are now cut, with lower income brackets getting bumped up again in a few years. Now there’s a massive deficit looming. How to fix it? Re-institute the tax in a new form. Now all Americans are going to pay these new taxes—businesses, as well. But only if the businesses keep doing business, and if buyers keep buying products. My guess is some of this activity is going to shrink. Who would have thought?